2010

New York was on the verge of passing this historic bill in 2010 and would have been the first state in the US to do so. NY Assembly Labor Committee Chair Susan John was quoted in the Wall Street Journal saying, "No other state in the country has a law like this." She was referring to the WBI anti-bullying Healthy Workplace Bill. Thanks to a bill-killing vote in her committee on June 8, that will be true for all of 2010. The vote was not on the merits of the bill. Instead, the vote was technically whether to vote or "hold." It was held and is officially dead.

Make no mistake, [the NY Healthy Workplace Advocates] will redouble their efforts for the 2011-12 session after this setback. A new Labor chair and new Governor will be in place. And if those individuals choose to resist offering the modest employee protections that the employer-friendly A5414B and S1823B provided, they will risk losing the backing of the 1.8 million New Yorkers who are painfully familiar with the ravages of malicious, health-harming, abusive misconduct at work.

2009

A2247, the study only bill, passed both the Assembly and Senate but was vetoed Gov. Paterson.

A banner 4-bill year, began with re-introduction of the study-only bills in the Assembly (A 2247) and Senate (S 1948) followed by a second set of companion bills, the complete versions of the HWB in both Assembly (A 5414) and Senate (S 1823). On April 29, 2009, S1823A added a provision to S 1823 to give union workers with collective bargaining agreements the best protection.

A 5414 was co-sponsored by the following:Assemblymember William Colton (D),Assemblymember William Colton (D), Assemblymember Joan L. Millman (D), Assemblymember Charles D. Lavine (D), Assemblymember Ellen Jaffee (D), Assemblyman Mark Schroeder (D), Assemblymember Dennis H. Gabryszak (D), Assemblymember Bob Barra (R),Assemblymember Bob Barra (R), Assemblymember Bob Barra (R), Assemblymember N. Nick Perry (D), Assemblyman Joseph S. Saladino (D), Assemblyman Al Stirpe (D), Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel (D).

2008

Barra (R) graciously relinquished control of the bill to Assemblymember Steven Englebright (D) and the bill became A10291 with Barra leading the list of nine co-sponsors. The Senate companion bill [S8793] to the full HWB was added in 2008 by Senators Thomas Morahan and Dale Volker.

2007

Assemblymember Bob Barra introduced the first full-text versions of the Healthy Workplace Bill [A7801/A7801-A]. The 2006 study-only bills were repeated [S2715 by Stachowski and A4921 by Schroeder].

2006

Senator William Stachowski and Assemblymember Mark Schroeder sponsored the first state bills [S8018 and A11565] calling for the state to study the problem of workplace bullying. Those bills made New York the 9th state to introduce HWB-related legislation in the U.S.